It sure is, you lie down to sleep and you find out that little thing that has been bothering you for years is a small petty thing of little to no value and it's all because you're dealing with a nasty host (Mara).

Since I am a stickler for rules and obsess over various ritualistic actions, meditation was always really hard because I would follow the rules to the letter and to no one's surprise this was ruled by the powers of uddaca and kukkuca because my mind would overly police what I was supposed to be doin...

The Thai forest monks helped a lot when I was learning the suttas, and the Burmese meditators helped with bhavana and Sri Lankan monks helped me learn devotional practice. I am incredibly greatful for all of them. Had a rough time trying to learn the ins and outs of discipline, but I try my best. Fi...

I had no idea anything was wrong with it. I looked on the dictionary to see if there was something I missed and apparently it has a definition of teasing, which makes her right, but it doesn't have this intended at all.

I'm sure the Buddha would not oppose friendship in this way either to be entirely honest. It's not like I'm encouraging akusala behavior by asking that we get to know one another as people and befriend them. I find this notion that friendship is made less real by being online to be really antiquated...

My boyfriend of 6 years who has spent months in my company was met online. My only brother who was stranded in Chile because of immigration shenanigans only had a connection with me by communicating online, and I love him dearly all the same. I think you just use it differently. I never take communi...

What do you call them? I differ largely on this topic because I don't have the fortune of having Buddhist companions as mentioned in OP and I mentioned later that I learned on my own. I am open to having friends outside of the desana, and I call them friends because we are companions and are close a...

My intention is to cultivate friendship without need to refer to pariyatti or patipatti. Being friends requires getting to know one another and I think it helps build connections between people to just talk about things without needing a topic. Things will come up and go as needed, I think that is a...

Would you like me to change the title? I can do that if it is incorrect in its usage. I use banter as it implies good humored chatting rather than being serious or dedicated to learning. I meant it to have a more of a light-hearted implication, but I can change it if you like. I may have missed the ...

Huzzah! Hmm... But I tend to like the shore side. My dad was born in a place called "Viña del Mar" on the coast of the country of Chile. He said this is why he loves the sea, and I think I might share his love of the coast. He met my mom when he moved to Guatemala not long after he was captured and ...

@xofz I've been diagnosed with Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and struggle with health problems that are aggravated by stress. While I know it's totally incomparable it helps to know you aren't alone in the struggle for mental amd physical health. It can make trying to explain things rea...

Hilariously enough being one immersed in Dhamma made me the awkward religious kid. Since my parents were sort of lapsed Catholics they saw nothing wrong with it. I was sort of a lapsed Catholic until a bunch of Christian kids invited me to their club and tried to teach me their ways. I was curious a...

I don't mind oversharing, and... That's weird, I directly friend people all the time on Facebook etc. Also that's why I made this topic, to be a bit freer and to try to get to know one another better. Anonymity isn't really an issue for me. My name is Gabriella, nice to meet you! I am from the DC me...